APOLLO 11: THE UNTOLD STORY
aka FIRST ON THE MOON: THE UNTOLD STORY One-Hour Special for Discovery
Science Channel / five When Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon in
July 1969, Apollo 11 was hailed as the supreme triumph of American technology.
But behind the flag waving lies a very different story: the untold account
of how close the mission came to disaster. Now, nearly forty years later,
men on that mission reveal what really happened on the first voyage to
the moon. It's a tale of how primitive computer technology, coupled with
human errors and mechanical failures, nearly caused the tragic loss of
the crew.

The first men on the
moon had to use a pen to fix a broken switch on their lunar module
and return home to earth, British newspaper the Daily Mirror reported on
Monday ahead of a new television documentary.

Neil Armstrong, the first
man on the moon, and Buzz Aldrin, his fellow astronaut, accidentally snapped
off the switch of a circuit breaker, and found they could not take off
without it.

Aldrin then jammed a ballpoint
pen into the hole where the switch had been, allowing the astronauts' lunar
module Eagle to leave the surface of the Moon.

According to the documentary
Apollo 11: The Untold Story, to be aired Monday on Britain's Channel Five
television, the United States was so eager to beat the Soviet Union to
putting a man on the moon, it launched its historic 1969 mission before
it was completely prepared.

Then-president Richard Nixon
even prepared an address to the nation announcing the deaths of Armstrong,
Aldrin and Michael Collins.

"In looking around at some
of the lunar dust on the floor, I discovered something that really didn't
belong there -- a broken end of a circuit breaker," Aldrin told Channel
Five in excerpts printed in the Daily Mirror.

"In the countdown procedure
I used a pen, one of several that we had on board that didn't have metal
on the end, and we used that to push the circuit breaker in."

The documentary also shows
how the US government ordered the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(Nasa) to cut links with the astronauts if disaster was imminent, not wanting
the world to watch images of American astronauts spinning off into space.

Aldrin revealed how the astronauts
believed they saw an unidentified flying object during the flight as well,
adding that Nasa covered it up for thirty years.

"There was something out
there that was close enough to be observed," Aldrin said. -- AFP

NEW YORK: A new documentary
reveals that the Americans were so eager to show their one-upmanship over
the Russians that they launched the mission to moon without much scientific
or technical precision or the required precautions. The mission came to
be launched in hope rather than in expectation.The doucmentary, Apollo
11: The Untold Story, brings out several lacunae that would have ended
up in disaster.The uncertainty was so strong
that the then U.S. president Richard Nixon had even prepared an address
to the nation announcing that the three astronauts -- Neil Armstrong, Buzz
Aldrin and Michael Collins -- had died in a space mishap.

Aldrin, now 76, interviewed
by the makers of the documentary, narrated how he found to his dismay that
a vital switch got damaged as one of the astronauts brushed against it
in a bulky spacesuit. He said as he looked around some of the lunar dust
on the floor, he found that there was something that did not belong to
the moon -- a broken part of a circuit breaker. That was a vital link for
the trio to return to the earth in safety. "In the countdown procedure,
I used a pen, one of several that we had on board that didn't have metal
on the end, and we used that to push the circuit breaker in."

The documentary also provides
an account of the crisis that occurred when the landing module was thrown
off course by a computer breakdown just as it was about to land. As the
astronauts tried to find out what really went wrong, they also noticed
that the spaceship had very inadequate fuel. The trio was 100 feet from
landing and the vehicle had only fuel for 60 seconds. "Without trying to
disturb Neil's concentration my body language was urging him to 'Get on
the ground as soon as you can', Aldrin told the makers of the documentary.

Armstrong managed to land
with just 15 seconds of fuel left.

There were also problems
about escape procedures for the astronauts in case of an eventuality. Classified
documents that have been made public indicate that NASA scientists never
told the astronauts that the escape procedures could be useless as they
would work only if the Saturn V rocket that powered their craft had broken
off.

The U.S. government had already
ordered the ground control to cut off links with the astronauts if any
disaster occurred. The government was more concerned about a whole world
watching the American astronauts spinning back into space.

Aldrin also revealed that
he and other astronauts had reported seeing a UFO during the flight, but
NASA had covered it up. He said, "There was something out there, close
enough to be observed, and what could it be?

"Now, obviously, the three
of us weren't going to blurt out, 'Hey Houston, we've got something moving
alongside of us and we don't know what it is you know?'

A close-up view of moon rocks

London: The three men who
made the historic landing on the moon on board the Apollo 11 were nearly
doomed to their death and would have ended up stranded there if not for
a Biro ball point pen.Neil Armstrong and Edwin
Aldrin had accidentally snapped off the switch of a circuit breaker, which
was essential for their take off from the moon after the completion of
their mission. But, Aldrin improvised it by jamming the end of a ballpoint
pen into the hole where the switch had been, and the astronauts' landing
module was again able to lift off from the moon's surface.A new documentary has revealed
that NASA was very eager to beat the Soviets on a moon-landing mission,
more so since the Soviets had beaten the Americans in sending the first
man, woman and animal into space. As such, the Americans launched their
mission more in hope than expectation, and this episode was one of the
strings of near disasters that threatened to turn their triumph into a
complete tragedy.So great was the danger
that Richard Nixon, the then US President even prepared an address to the
nation announcing the deaths of Apollo 11 trio Armstrong, Aldrin and Michael
Collins, reports The Mirror.Aldrin, now 76, told filmmakers
his heart sank when he realised that the vital switch had been broken,
probably as a result of a light collision when one of the astronauts brushed
against it in his bulky spacesuit.He said, "In looking around
at some of the lunar dust on the floor, I discovered something that really
didn't belong there - a broken end of a circuit breaker”.In the countdown procedure
I used a pen, one of several that we had on board that didn't have metal
on the end, and we used that to push the circuit breaker in," he added.Aldrin also said, the mission
had the possibility of getting doomed even before Neil set his foot on
moon.As they frantically tried
to work out what was wrong, the module drifted, and they became dangerously
short of fuel. At one stage they were still 100ft from landing, but had
only 60 seconds of fuel left in the tanks, he said."Without trying to disturb
Neil's concentration, my body language was urging him to 'Get on the ground
as soon as you can’. Armstrong managed to land with just 15 seconds of
fuel left,” Aldrin said.He added that NASA bosses
had also failed to tell the astronauts that the escape procedures they
had been taught could well be useless, as the escape plan they banking
on would only work if the giant Saturn V rocket that powered their craft
had already broken off.The US Government had also
ordered NASA to cut links with the astronauts if disaster struck, as it
did not want the entire world to watch pictures of American astronauts
spinning off into space, he said.Aldrin further said the
astronauts even believed they saw a UFO during the flight, but NASA kept
it under wraps for thirty years.“There was something out
there that was close enough to be observed,” he further said.